


Not Conventional

by Jld71



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bonding, Claiming Bites, Cuddling & Snuggling, Guilt, Hurt Stiles, M/M, Mating, Nightmares, Protective Derek, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 23:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18671002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jld71/pseuds/Jld71
Summary: Derek discovers a secret that Stiles has been keeping from him.





	Not Conventional

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tabbytabbytabby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/gifts).



> Written for the 2019 Hurt/Comfort Challenge  
> Recipient: tabbytabbytabby  
> Some of the tags requested were: Cleaning/treating wounds, Character planned to die but didn’t, Angst with a happy ending, Emotional hurt/comfort, Dreams & nightmares, Protectiveness, Cuddling & snuggling  
> Beta: yonkyu

Not Conventional

 

Slowly Stiles woke, he stirred in bed as a sound pulled him from his sleep. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to figure out what had woken him. The sound of a whimper cut through the silence of the pitch black bedroom, causing his heart to begin to hammer in his chest. He felt himself tense as he tried to comprehend where he was and what was happening. Movement from the other side of the bed had his eyes focusing on the solid form lying next to him. Derek, his alpha. He breathed in, taking comfort in the familiar smell of the man he was bonded and mated to. He started to relax until he heard Derek cry out in his sleep again. Derek was in the throws of another nightmare. This wasn’t the first or even the fifth nightmare that Derek had over the last few weeks. It had been like this since they had returned to Beacon Hills. He knew where this was coming from, Derek’s guilt over not having been able to protect him from the attack that Gerard Argent had waged against the supernatural beings that made Beacon Hills their home.

 

Derek still blamed himself for his near fatal injury that he had suffered at the hands of one of Argent’s hunters. They had gone around and around on the subject, nearly coming to blows over it a few times until Derek had backed down, explaining that an alpha never raised his hand to his beta mate. As many times as he had explained to Derek that it wasn’t his fault, Derek still regarded him with those piercing blue eyes that conveyed the depth of his sadness that he felt over the situation. It hurt him to meet Derek’s eyes when his alpha was like this. Yes, he had been hurt, and had nearly died as a result of it. He had been stabbed by one of Argent’s men as he had tried to get to Derek and Scott; to lend his support to the fight against the hunters trying to kill the supernatural inhabitants, many who were their friends. 

 

He was alive and they were together. So what if it wasn’t the way they had anticipated? He loved Derek and he knew Derek loved him. He just didn’t see the reason in agonizing over what had happened to bring them together.

 

He placed a hand on Derek’s shoulder and gently shook the sleeping man. “Hey, wake up. You’re just having a nightmare,” he said in a soothing voice. He wanted to make sure Derek was as calm as possible as he came out of whatever he was dreaming about so his wolf won’t rise to the surface, thinking it had to protect its mate. 

 

Stiles’ voice called to him, penetrating his dream; no nightmare. The one he had over and over again. The one that filled him with such dread and guilt. He was the cause of Stiles’ injury. If he had been protecting the younger man, Stiles would never have been hurt. Stiles would still be human. But, he had failed Stiles and he had bitten the human in order to save him. He had taken away Stiles’ choice to be turned out of a selfish need to keep Stiles with him. He hadn’t wanted to lose the insufferable human.  And in doing so, he had bonded Stiles to him, changing him from a human into a wolf, into a beta, and more precisely his beta mate. 

 

He felt Derek shift in their bed, turning toward him and he hummed in satisfaction. He moved closer to Derek, needing to feel his alpha’s body against his. “Want to talk about it? Your dream?” he asked, already knowing what Derek’s answer would be, ‘No’. It was always the same answer and he had already figured out that Derek always had the same nightmare. As much as he wanted to push Derek into opening up to him, he always held back, sensing it wasn’t the time to poke at Derek for fear of his wolf surfacing. “You know you can tell me anything,” he offered as he settled back against his pillows, draping one of his arms loosely over Derek’s waist.

 

“It’s alright,” Derek murmured, “I hardly remember what I was dreaming about,” he said and then gave Stiles a gentle kiss on his cheek before laying his head against his pillow. 

 

“Okay, if you’re sure,” Stiles murmured sleepily as he began to drift back to sleep.

 

Derek smiled at Stiles. He watched as Stiles’ breathing evened out, indicating that he had fallen back to sleep. He looked at Stiles again and all he could see for a moment was Stiles’ crumpled body as he lay in the field, bleeding. His wolf had recognized the scent the moment the blood had tainted the air. The alpha in him had howled in rage at the thought that its human mate had been hurt. Sure, he and Stiles had been dancing around their attraction to each other. He had denied his interest in the younger man, Stiles had been in high school when they had met. What type of relationship could they have had at that point? But despite that, their age difference of seven years, he had found himself forming a friendship with Stiles. He enjoyed Stiles’ brand of humor, much to his dismay. He had also seen the caring and devoted side of Stiles when it came to his friends and it only had him and his wolf wanting to claim Stiles as his. 

 

Derek had had his own family and pack before they had been picked off by Argent and his fellow hunters. He had wrestled the status of alpha away from Peter, his own uncle and had discovered that even though he had created his own pack for a while, he had preferred to remain packless. It just suited him better. He could easily move about Beacon Hills and eventually other parts of the country without worrying about being a leader to a pack and their protection. He had thought that all his family had been killed except Peter, only to find out that his younger sister Cora was alive and that she had been hidden away for her own protection. She had returned to their family home, thinking it safe, and it had been for a time until Argent had decided it was his mission to kill off anything supernatural. With that threat, Cora had left. One of them had to survive. But he had missed his sister and had left Beacon Hills to check on Cora, needing to know she was safe.

 

The decision to leave hadn’t been an easy one to make. The war between humans and the supernatural was just starting to brew and he would be leaving behind those who needed his help. He would be leaving Stiles behind and his wolf was against that, having recognized Stiles as its mate. If he was honest with himself, he wanted Stiles as his significant other as well. Even though he and his wolf had feelings for Stiles, he had left, knowing it had been the right thing to do. He couldn’t risk Stiles’ safety or lead him into a relationship that he knew was doomed from the start.

 

After making sure that Cora was safe in South America, he had returned home to help Scott deal with the threat to Beacon Hills and their friends. But the biggest threat had been to Stiles, he just hadn’t known it at the time. It wasn’t until he had heard Stiles’ cry of pain from being stabbed did he take his focus off the human he had been tangling with. He had made short work of the man he had been fighting with before racing to Stiles’ side.

 

Seeing Stiles lying on the cold ground had him and his wolf acting as one and together they had eliminated the threat to Stiles’ safety, adding the man’s blood to what already coated the hard ground. He whined as he nosed at Stiles’ body. He could hear Stiles’ heartbeat, but it was faint and fading. He licked at the wound, trying to staunch the blood flow. He heard movement and shifted to stand over Stiles’, protecting him from any further attack. Not realizing the movement had come from Stiles until he felt fingers scrabbling in his fur and he growled low in his throat, only stopping when he heard a voice speaking softly to him.

 

“Derek,” Stiles breathed out with as much effort as he could. It hurt to move, let alone speak and he knew he was running out of time. He raked his fingers through Derek’s midnight black fur, trying to get the wolf’s attention. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” he rasped out, trying to calm the agitated wolf standing over him. He could sense Derek’s distress. “You need to finish the fight. Help Scott.” He had weakly tried to push Derek away. He needed to get the formidable wolf moving. He refused to be the cause of them losing everything they had fought so hard for; a safe place for the supernatural to exist, to call home. “Go!” he had managed to yell before his strength failed him. He was so cold, so tired and his hand slipped from Derek’s side. “Love you,” he breathed out before his eyes had slipped closed. Faintly he heard Derek whine as he began to lose consciousness.

 

Derek pawed at the ground anxiously and then nosed at Stiles’s neck. He dragged his tongue over Stiles’ face, knowing how much the younger man hated when he did that, but received no response. He circled around Stiles prone body, looking out over those still fighting. His eyes met Scott’s briefly, but he broke eye contact when he heard Stiles’ heartbeat slow to the point where it was hardly detectable. Without another thought, he opened his powerful jaws and clamped down over the stab wound, driving his canines into the sensitive flesh. He heard Stiles take a ragged breath and quickly withdrew his teeth. He lapped at the wound and then licked his muzzle clean of Stiles’ blood before letting out an ear piercing howl. He had not only saved Stiles’ life, but had also turned him, and in doing so, had managed to claim Stiles as his mate. One part of him couldn’t deny his satisfaction of knowing Stiles was his, the other part was fearful of Stiles’ reaction. He had taken away Stiles’ ability to make this choice for himself. It had been selfish on his part, but he hadn’t been willing to lose Stiles. 

 

Derek sighed heavily as he gently placed an arm over Stiles’ waist as he tried to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in, trying to let go of his unpleasant memory. 

 

Stiles shifted on the bed, “Derek, you’re thinking too loudly,” Stiles complained in a sleepy voice. 

 

“Sorry,” Derek murmured as he rolled onto his side and nosed at Stiles’ neck, needing to take in the comforting scent of his mate. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

 

“Stop being sorry,” Stiles countered back, knowing that Derek’s apology covered more than just disturbing his sleep. “Look, we’ve gone over this before, so this is the last time I’m going to tell you, stop, just stop. There’s no reason to feel guilty for what you did.”

 

“Hm,” was Derek’s reaction. 

 

Stiles sighed and moved closer to his alpha, wanting to snuggle in his embrace. “You saved my life when I was prepared to die.” He sucked in a startled breath. He hadn’t meant to say that. That was a secret he had meant to keep to himself.

 

“What?” Derek asked in confusion, his body stiffening.

 

“You were never supposed to know.” He heard Derek’s low growl and he winced. “I wasn’t the target that night. You were,” he finally admitted and felt his fear rise as he uttered those words.

 

“What do you mean?” Derek asked as he tried to comprehend what Stiles was telling him.

 

“The hunter, he was going after you, not me. I stepped in the way,” Stiles said in a low voice.

 

“What were you thinking?” Derek demanded as he pulled away from Stiles, horrified at finally hearing the truth. He growled at Stiles as his normally blue eyes turned red, showing that his alpha side was coming out and he fought to remain in control.

 

“I was thinking that I needed to save you. He was going to kill you!” Stiles yelled as he sat up, his brown eyes flashed yellow in fear of his alpha’s anger. “I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t let that happen,” Stiles said in a near whisper as he looked away from Derek.

 

“Why?” Derek softly asked as he felt himself gain control over his wolf.

 

“You were needed more than me,” Stiles finally admitted. “I was the only human fighting alongside our supernatural friends and . . . I saw the knife, saw who the hunter was going after and did the only thing I could think of. I got in his way. I thought maybe I could slow him down, give you time, give you a fighting chance. I guess I should have thought of another plan,” Stiles said with a shrug of his shoulders.

 

Derek eyed Stiles. He was torn between wanting to punch Stiles and hold him. “You think?” Derek snarked in response.

 

“I didn’t think he’d stab me since I was human. I didn’t think the wound would be fatal.” Stiles shook his head. “I thought that maybe I could get the knife away from him, or that he’d only nick me or something, not . . .”

 

“Nearly kill you,” Derek growled out harshly, not meaning to. He could feel his emotions rising to the surface, anger, fear and love. He had nearly lost Stiles. “Do you know how Scott would have felt if you had been killed? What about you Dad? Did you think about how your friends would have felt if you had died? How I would have felt? Do you know what it would have done to me if I had lost you? I would have been devastated,” he said quietly.

 

“But you saved me,” Stiles countered back in a small voice, still not daring to look at Derek, not wanting to see Derek’s anger directed at him. He took a ragged breath, trying to calm himself. He was tense and his fear was rising at the knowledge that Derek finally knew the truth, that he had been willing to sacrifice himself so that Derek would survive “So now you know,” he breathed out, trying to fill the empty silent space growing between them. 

 

“Yeah, and you shouldn’t have kept that from me,” Derek responded as he moved closer to Stiles He felt himself beginning to let go of his anger and fear as he reached out and placed his fingers under Stiles’ chin, gently turning Stiles’ head so they were looking at each other. “All this guilt, this secret . . .” he started to say, only to be cut off by Stiles

 

“I’m sorry about keeping this from you and making you feel guilty. But I’m not sorry you turned me or claimed me,” Stiles said as he defiantly looked into Derek’s eyes. “You were taking too long, anyway. This just moved things along.” He gave Derek a wicked smile before leaning in and placing a chaste kiss on Derek’s lips.

 

Derek growled at Stiles as he playfully pushed Stiles down into his pillows and then leaned over him, bracketing Stiles with his arms as they stared into each other’s eyes. “I should beat your ass,” he huffed out. He felt Stiles playfully push against him and chuckled. He smiled, kissed Stiles and then shifted off of him to lay down next to him.

 

“Oh, kinky, but let’s save that for another night,” Stiles offered with a laugh. “How about we try and get some more sleep,” Stiles said as he moved to lay in Derek’s arms.

 

Derek rolled his eyes at his mate. “That depends,” he countered back.

 

“On what?” Stiles inquired as he shifted onto his side to look into Derek’s eyes. 

 

“On if you have any more secrets you’ve been keeping from me,” Derek growled out playfully, but the meaning behind his words was anything but playful. “Tell me mate, do you?”

 

“No alpha, I promise. There are no more secrets,” Stiles replied with sincerity. 

 

“Good, let’s keep it that way between us,” Derek replied. 

 

“Yes, alpha,” Stiles responded, sleepily feeling himself begin to give in to his body’s need for sleep.

 

“Just know that I’m happy we are mated,” Derek confirmed to Stiles. 

 

“Good, so am I,” Stiles said and then nodded “The way we started out, it wasn’t conventional, but it’s what we have. And, what we have is good,” Stiles murmured against Derek’s neck as he drifted back to sleep, secure in his alpha’s arms. “I love you,” were his last words to Derek as his breathing evened out in sleep.

 

Derek chuckled. Stiles was right, the way they had mated and bonded wasn’t conventional, but it was good. He had to admit that, even to himself. “I love you too,” he said as he held Stiles tighter in his arms and finally drifted off into a contented sleep. 


End file.
